


i'd love to stay (all my friends)

by cornerkick



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Cuddling, F/F, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sorry?, This was SUPPOSED to be fluff.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22180819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cornerkick/pseuds/cornerkick
Summary: “Hey.” Kelley taps Lindsey’s cheek with her fingertips and ducks her head so that Lindsey can’t look away. “This sucks for you, too. I know. But she’s going through it and she’s going to need her people. Okay?”ORthe one where everyone finds out at camp i guess
Relationships: Lindsey Horan/Emily Sonnett, and other stuff if you squint?
Comments: 18
Kudos: 109





	i'd love to stay (all my friends)

**Author's Note:**

> i know this isn't grey's fic, but sometimes you just write 3k to cope.
> 
> this turned into something different than what i had in my head. it was meant to be more fluffy, but it got away from me a little bit.
> 
> named after dermot kennedy's "all my friends", which i highly recommend.
> 
> this is /technically/ ot3 fic, right? right.

Emily gets a phone call on Saturday. 

She’s in the middle of packing for camp and answers it without bothering to look at the number on the screen. She just puts it on speaker and keeps trying to sit on her suitcase to get it closed. 

(It’s actually Lindsey’s suitcase. Her own duffle is very much unpacked in the corner, but this one will hold more.) 

“What’s up?” 

“...Emily? What are you doing?”

The hair on the back of her neck stands on end. Why is Mark calling her in the middle of the afternoon during the offseason? She sits on the floor instead and grabs her phone to return it to private and presses it to her ear instead.

“Packing,” she says simply. When all she hears on the other end of the phone is static, she adds, “For camp.”

Mark hesitates. He takes a deep breath. Emily wonders if he meant to call her at all. 

Then, he says “We’re in trade talks,” and Emily’s stomach feels like it’s sinking through the floor.

Mark tells her he’s proud of her. He says she was an important part of the culture in Portland. He says a lot of things, but it all sounds like white noise to Sonny, whose brain has shut off. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“For what?” Emily says, finally finding her voice again. “It’s your job.” 

It doesn’t feel real. Nothing’s set in stone, he’d said, but the Thorns are looking to move pieces to Orlando for the #1 pick in the upcoming draft.

In the back of her mind, Emily always knew that this day would come. 

She just thought she had an extra year or two, until the expansion. Until Atlanta. 

She hangs up the phone and forces Lindsey’s suitcase closed. 

She ignores the notification on her screen.

_ 1 new message from The Great Horan. _

-

Kelley finds out on Monday morning. 

She’s making coffee with her new French press and Allie is filming when someone knocks on the door. Sonny walks inside and makes herself at home on Kelley’s bed, which is normal. 

The _ way _she’s sitting on it isn’t. There’s a subtle slope in her shoulders and she’s worrying her bottom lip so hard it’s going to bleed. Once the camera’s off, Kelley turns in her chair towards Emily, places her hands on Sonny’s knees, and arches a brow. “What’s up?”

“Nothing. Coffee?” 

Kelly pours her a cup, makes it the way Sonny takes it, and hands it over, but she doesn’t say another word. 

Emily sighs, glances over at Allie, and bites her lip again. 

“Can you give us a minute?”

Allie’s already slipping into her shoes. She tosses a wave over her shoulder as she goes. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

Kelley shakes her head. Emily waits for the door to snap shut and then counts to ten, slowly, focusing on her breathing and Kelley’s fingertips pressed into her sweats. 

“The Thorns are going after the number one pick,” she admits, looking somewhere over Kelley’s left shoulder. “And I’m involved in the trade talks.” 

Kelley’s brow furrows. Her nose scrunches up a little bit, making her freckles all run together. She blinks. Then, she seems to process the words and presses her palms more firmly into Emily’s knees. “They’re idiots.” 

She says it with such conviction that Emily almost believes her.

They spend the next fifteen minutes talking about Orlando. Kelley’s visited Alex down there and Sonny’s really only been for their roadtrips against the Pride, so she’s happy to hear that it’s not full of just old people or tourists. 

“Plus, Disney.”

“Yeah.” 

Something in Emily’s chest still aches, even though she feels lighter just having _ told _ someone. She starts chewing her lip again and Kelley reaches out to press her thumb to Sonny’s bottom lip instead. Her breath catches a little bit, but she stops biting it. 

“Talk to me, Son.” 

Her shoulders slump and she rocks forward, essentially pushing Kelley away as she presses her hands to her face. She mumbles something incoherently. Kelley reaches for Emily’s wrists to pull her hands away. 

“What was that?”

“_Lindsey_.”

Recognition flashes across Kelley’s face, though Emily doesn’t see it because her shoelaces have become the most interesting thing in the room. Kelley rests her hands on Emily’s shoulders and gives them a firm squeeze.

“You should tell her. Before somebody else does.”

-

Lindsey finds out on Twitter. 

She doesn’t _ mean _ to. It’s not like she follows any of those people. The media are mostly okay, but Lindsey’s doesn’t like to read articles about herself or her struggles last season, so she sticks mostly to following current and former teammates and people who cover men’s soccer.

It shows up on her timeline because Russell likes it. She’s about to go to her settings and unfollow him (again), when her brain registers the words on the screen.

_ From multiple sources: Thorns involved in a deal for the #1 overall pick in the NWSL draft. Believe Emily Sonnett and/or Midge Purce are involved. _

It feels like the time Emily kicked a ball full-force into her stomach. Her lungs can’t get enough air all of a sudden. Lindsey clicks on the tweet and then falls down a rabbit hole after typing Sonny’s name into the search bar. 

There are sources. A lot of them. And Lindsey’s head hurts because she’s trying not to cry thinking about it. 

They’re at camp. She has to get to practice. But Portland without Emily? Is that really Portland at all?

-

The worst part about the whole thing is that she didn’t know that it was the last time.

She goes back and watches the game in the dark while Rose and Sam are making a Target run. She watches herself walk onto the field at Providence Park as a Thorn for the last time. She listens to the national anthem. Lindsey finds her for the handshake and that’s what really gets her. She was going to be okay until she saw that, and now she feels like she’s going to explode if she doesn’t tell Lindsey _ right now _.

Emily makes it until she blows the coverage on Kerr to get to her feet.

-

Lindsey’s not in her own room. 

She’s in Kelley’s. 

She’s in Kelley’s room because she knows Kelley _knows_. It’s just a feeling. 

Kelley keeps trying to offer her coffee and snacks from Allie’s side of the room, which Lindsey keeps refusing. She sits on Allie’s bed and levels Kelley with a long look. 

“Not that I don’t love seeing you, Lindsey,” Kelley says, looking up from where she’s digging under Allie’s bed. “But what are you doing here?” 

It’s not like they’re not friendly. They play for the same team half the time and, sometimes, Kelley’s the only adult supervision she and the rest of the youngsters have when they go out. But they both know this is about Emily before Lindsey even opens her mouth. 

Lindsey opens her mouth, closes it, and presses her tongue against her front teeth. 

Kelley throws herself back onto her own bed heavily and mirrors Lindsey, hands on her knees. She leans forward conspiratorially. “You know, don’t you?”

Lindsey blinks. She nods. She doesn’t look up from the hotel carpet until Kelley closes the distance between them to place her thumb under Lindsey’s chin, effectively forcing their eyes to meet. Kelley’s are _ burning _ while Lindsey tries not to cry. 

“Hey.” She taps Lindsey’s cheek with her fingertips and ducks her head so that Lindsey can’t look away. “This sucks for you, too. I know. But she’s going through it and she’s going to need her people. Okay?” 

Kelley takes her hand back, but Lindsey doesn’t drop her gaze. She nods. Kelley arches her eyebrows. “Okay.”

-

Kelley’s right. Of course she’s right. Emily’s the one who has to deal with the change, if there is one, and even if it’ll affect Lindsey, it’s not the same. Lindsey will be staying in Portland with the Thorns. 

Emily, probably, will not be. 

Since the leak, Lindsey has been unable to stop checking Twitter. She’s re-followed all of the news outlets and tries to be subtle at dinner when she checks the notifications, but Rose notices. 

“Please tell me you’re not texting him again. Lindsey, give me your phone.” 

Lindsey snatches it right off of the table, which just makes Rose lean towards Emily. “See.”

“It’s not Russell.”

“Oh, so it’s porn?” Emily says, looking completely nonplussed. She shoots Lindsey a cheeky smile from across the table and their feet knock together under the table. It’s accidental, at first, but then Emily keeps trying to trap Lindsey’s foot beneath both of hers. 

“It’s not.”

“Is it Tinder?” Sam asks. Lindsey shoots her a look of disbelief. “What? You’re being weird.”

“She’s right,” Rose says. “You’re being weirder than usual.” She shoots her straw wrapper at Lindsey, who swats it away. It lands in Emily’s drink. 

“You did that on purpose.”

“No, but I bet I can do it again.” 

“You’re on.” Emily balls up her own straw paper and holds it between her pointer finger and thumb. She aims once, twice, and then hurls it at Lindsey with a flick of her wrist. Lindsey slaps it out of the air with her palm and it lands directly in the center of Emily’s soda. 

“Sammy,” Emily holds her hand out. “Gimme your straw wrapper.”

Sam tips her head. “She can’t do it three times in a row.”

“What do I get when I win?”

“A life, hopefully,” Rose answers helpfully. 

They both ignore her while Sam hands her paper to Emily. “What do you want?” 

“I want to win.” Lindsey holds her hand up while Emily prepares to throw. “But you can do my laundry for a month.”

“And you’ll do mine when you miss?”

“_If _I miss? Yeah, sure.”

Lindsey’s eyes are narrowed. Emily’s tongue pokes just barely out from between her lips. Rose steals Emily’s fries. “Hey, is that Harry Styles?” Everyone turns to look. Lindsey snaps her head back quickly.

Then, Emily draws her arm back and flings the straw paper at Lindsey. It hits her right in the forehead. Emily lifts her hands in victory.

“Have fun washing my workout clothes.”

“You cheated.” 

“It’s not cheating. It’s being resourceful.”

“Are we done now? Can we go back to betting on when Alex is gonna have her baby?” Rose grabs a handful of fries while Emily and Lindsey hold eye contact. 

“Wait, I thought we were betting on names?” Sam says. 

Emily’s too busy stomping on Lindsey’s foot to reply. Lindsey grabs one of Emily’s wrists when she tries to throw a napkin at her next. They end up kind of holding hands, but neither of them lets go. 

Lindsey runs her thumb over the back of Emily’s hand. 

Emily wonders why for a second before remembering that Lindsey does this all the time. It doesn’t really mean anything new. 

It just means everything.

-

The news breaks Wednesday. The Thorns reached out to her first thing in the morning as a courtesy. 

It still doesn’t feel real, though, and Emily knows why. 

The team has an off day, so she texts Lindsey no less than twelve times before 8 a.m., the last of which is just a series of upside down smiley faces. 

Lindsey still gets out of bed for her, which says more than Lindsey herself does when she shuffles downstairs to meet her in the lobby. She’s sleepy and soft with her hair down and Emily doesn’t want to say anything important before Lindsey’s had coffee.

“Is that mine?”

“_That’s _ mine,” Lindsey points out, gesturing to the Adidas hoodie Emily’s wearing. The sleeves are so long that her hands aren’t even poking out. 

“Okay, but that’s my shirt.”

“You left it at mine.”

Emily can’t really argue with that. It’s likely. “I googled a place. Avo toast?”

“I need caffeine.”

“There will be coffee, yeah.” 

“Cool.”

The place is only a couple of blocks away, so they walk. It’s quiet and, normally, that’s okay for them. They’ve shared blankets of silence for hours before with no awkwardness. There’s something unspoken between them, though. Emily’s looking at her untied shoelaces, but whenever she glances at Lindsey, Lindsey’s looking at _ her _. 

Emily stops walking. Lindsey takes two more strides before realizing and then turns to look at her. 

“You know.” It’s not a question. It’s written all over Lindsey’s face. 

She pulls the sleeves of Emily’s sweatshirt down as far as they’ll go and now it’s Lindsey’s turn to look at Sonny’s stupid, untied laces. “Know what?”

“Lindsey.” Emily doesn’t call her that. It forces Lindsey to look up. “Don’t make me say it.” Her voice breaks just a little bit on the end and before Lindsey’s brain can catch up with her body, she’s closing the distance between them and opening her arms for Emily. Emily lets Lindsey wrap her up in a hug and presses herself into the crook of Lindsey’s neck. 

It’s a tight hug, Lindsey’s arms wrapped completely around Emily’s shoulders, and Emily’s got hers around Lindsey’s waist. “It’ll be okay, Em. It’s gonna be fine.” She’s not really sure if she believes that, but Emily _ needs _ to. 

Kelley’s voice is ringing in her head when she says it. 

They stay like that for a few more moments, until people start making their way to work along the sidewalk, and they’re forced to move. 

They hold hands all the way to the cafe. Emily buys Lindsey’s coffee. They buy a scone to split that neither of them eats. 

They don’t talk about it.

-

When Kelley gets back from shopping with Allie, she finds Sonnett wrapped up in a too-big Thorns hoodie and curled up in her bed. Allie takes one look at her, grabs some stuff from her bag, and disappears.

“Son.” 

“It’s official. Purple is, like, the color of roy...royalty, right?” The shake in her voice forces Kelley to move more quickly than her body wants her to, but she ignores the little twinge in her bad ankle and folds herself against Emily’s back. 

“You’re gonna look kickass in purple, babe,” she says against Emily’s shoulder. Her muscles are tense and she’s shaking a little bit, so Kelley loops and arm securely around Emily’s waist and shoves the other arm underneath the pillow Sonny’s using. She slots one leg between Emily’s and presses her nose to the back of Emily’s neck. She breathes in deeply, slowly, and watches as Emily’s shoulders relax as her breathing syncs up with Kelley’s own. 

She threads her fingers through Emily’s at her waist and uses her free hand to send a quick text before turning it on silent and tossing it off to the side. 

“You wanna talk?” She feels rather than sees Emily shake her head. “You want me to talk?” Emily nods.

“Did I ever tell you about the time Christen and I got arrested in college?” 

-

Lindsey kind of wants to ignore the message or pretend that she left her phone in her room when she went to pick a movie with Rose, but something magnetic won’t let her. She walks to Kelley’s room with lead in her feet, but forces herself to push open the door when Kelley tells her it’s open.

Emily’s all bundled up with Kelley spooning her from the back and Lindsey’s wondering why Kelley even asked her to come over here, because it looks like she’s got it covered.

Then, Emily pops her head up and looks at her and Lindsey’s already halfway across the room before she actually decides she’s staying. She climbs into bed on Emily’s other side and Emily automatically reaches for her, fingers curling in the front of her t-shirt while she finds that spot under Lindsey’s chin where she fits perfectly. 

Kelley moves with her and they’re kind of a Sonnet sandwich with Kelley’s chin on Sonny’s shoulder and Lindsey’s on top of Emily’s head. Lindsey rests her arm above Kelley’s on Emily’s stomach and ends up curling her fingers into Kelley’s shirt and hikes one leg up over both Emily and Kelley’s hips. 

Emily finds her hand with the one not holding Kelley’s and gives it a soft squeeze. 

“Did you know,” she says, her voice raspy. “That Kel and Chris got arrested?” 

Lindsey presses a laugh into the crown of Emily’s hair and looks at Kelley from over Emily’s head. “Nope, but I’d love to hear all about it.” 

Kelley starts detailing a long and winding story about a frat party gone wrong. Emily’s breathing evens out and her hands go slack. 

Lindsey watches Kelley nuzzle her nose into Emily’s shoulder, but Kelley doesn’t stop talking until Lindsey falls asleep, too. 

At some point, Kelley’s arm stretches across Lindsey’s back, too.

-

Emily wakes up sweating.

It’s pitch black outside and something heavy is across her chest. She wriggles a bit, blinks into the dim light, and realizes, with a start, that she’s got Kelley _and_ Lindsey curled around her from either side. They’re all tangled up, too, one of Lindsey’s legs across Kelley’s, Kelley’s hand clutching Lindsey’s shirt. 

Even though she feels like she might die of heatstroke, Emily burrows back between them. They both curl into her and Emily drifts back to sleep with a smile. 

-

Lindsey wakes up to the smell of fresh coffee. She also registers that she’s kind of cold, compared to last night. She shifts a little bit in bed and realizes two things: someone covered them with a blanket and Kelley’s not in bed. 

“Morning,” Kelley says from her right, holding a cup of coffee towards her. 

Lindsey can’t actually move to take it because Emily’s wrapped around her in a way that has her arms pinned between them. “Tough break, bud,” Kelley says, grinning into her own coffee cup. 

Lindsey glares at her from Emily’s other side and mouths _ fuck you _. 

“Oh, you’d like that, huh, Linds?” 

“Shut up.” 

“Make me.” It’s Emily who says it, and it makes Kelley laugh and Lindsey pull her closer. 

“Sorry. Did we wake you?”

“Nope, I just didn’t wanna move.” Lindsey doesn’t move. She holds fast and tight to Emily while she can, brushes her lips lightly over Emily’s shoulder. 

Then Emily stretches and jabs her in the stomach with her elbow and the moment’s gone. 

“Good morning, sunshine. What are we thinking?”

Emily leans across Lindsey to grab the full cup of coffee on the bedside table and takes a sip before offering it to Lindsey. Too sweet.

“WaHo?” 

Lindsey glances over at Kelley. Kelley shrugs. “What Sonnett wants, Sonnett gets.”

“In that case,” Emily says, reluctantly peeling herself away from Lindsey and rolling to her feet. “I want to sleep with you both again tonight.” 

“Kinky.”

“Okay.”

And they do. 

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> how are we feeling, folks? 
> 
> find me on twitter @cornerkix_ if ya want shenanigans or feelings


End file.
